Useful Searches

This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Welcome to the new DBSTalk community platform. We have recently migrated to a community platform called Xenfono and hope you will find this change to your liking. There are some differences, but for the most part, if you just post and read, that will all be the same. If you have questions, please post them in the Forum Support area. Thanks!

But on a lighter note....how this all plays out will indeed be interesting. NBC Universal has a number of "components" within that organization, and Comcast would likely already have strategic plans in place as to how to deploy, divest, or change the current group before making this purchase attempt.

Oh, well, I'm gonna' miss USA and SYFY. No Comcrap in my area, so when they yank those channels from DirecTV, I'll be without. Of course, there's always Hulu, but then knowing Comca$t, they'll put that behind a pay wall too.

Oh, well, I'm gonna' miss USA and SYFY. No Comcrap in my area, so when they yank those channels from DirecTV, I'll be without. Of course, there's always Hulu, but then knowing Comca$t, they'll put that behind a pay wall too.

Well, Philadelphia was the center of the teenager's TV universe in the late 1950s and early 1960s; "American Bandstand".

As lows as NBC has fallen, this may be an improvement. Also, maybe the variety will increase on the NBC/Universal owned cable channels. The 8 hour daily marathon programming is old and tired. Chiller, which showed promise, succumbed to the marathon scheduling earlier this year. And maybe Comcast might change the name of "SyFy" back to "SciFi" and drop Tuesday wrestling.. And maybe USA will add more programming to compete with TNT.

While this will be an end of an era going back to the early 1920s for NBC. With the creation of the NBC Blue and NBC Red Radio Networks. This merger/purchase (if it is allowed to happen) would be logical. Time Warner owns a number of cable systems and cable channels, so there is a precedent. Finally, General Electric has been starving the entertainment unit for years, so Comcast may be a better fit.

There is no merit in that assertion. There is nothing about this deal that would be worthy of any significant amount of administration concern. It's simply trading one big company (GE) for another (Comcast).

islesfan said:

Oh, well, I'm gonna' miss USA and SYFY. No Comcrap in my area, so when they yank those channels from DirecTV, I'll be without.

Click to expand...

There is no reason, whatsoever, to think that DirecTV will lose the ability to provide USA or Syfy. As a matter of fact, if Comcast does do something unfair in that regard, that is when the administration may see fit to step in.

On the other hand, DirecTV may decide, itself, that it no longer want to provide you USA or Syfy, even though it has the fair ability to provide them for you. If that occurs (i.e., if the administration sees no unfairness, with regard to Comcast's offering), then blame DirecTV.

Stuart Sweet said:

I will simply say, as I have before, that the day they start charging for hulu will be the day I uninstall hulu desktop from my computer. Period.

Click to expand...

That day is coming. There is no business case for offering Hulu for free forever.

nmetro said:

As lows as NBC has fallen, this may be an improvement. Also, maybe the variety will increase on the NBC/Universal owned cable channels.

Click to expand...

Good points.

nmetro said:

While this will be an end of an era going back to the early 1920s for NBC.

Click to expand...

Not at all. Remember, GE has only owned NBC since 1986. Comcast's acquisition of NBC from GE is no different than GE's acquisition of RCA from GE.

nmetro said:

This merger/purchase (if it is allowed to happen) would be logical. Time Warner owns a number of cable systems and cable channels, so there is a precedent. Finally, General Electric has been starving the entertainment unit for years, so Comcast may be a better fit.

Click to expand...

Good points.

Justin23 said:

I think I read somewhere that the Comcast division that will control NBC/Universal is going to be separate from that side of Comcast that is a TV provider.

Click to expand...

That's for certain. I've also read that Comcast may sell the OTA broadcast network and O&O stations, just keeping UMS and the cable networks, so the core of what has been NBC since 1926 would not only be kept intact, but wouldn't even be part of Comcast. As such, many of the expressed fears would be totally unfounded.

Where does GE sell programming to consumers? It's not the same as one big company selling it to another when that other big company is the largest pay tv provider in the US. I don't care if they hide it behind a shell division. Regulators will have to get involved. Just like when Newscorp bought controling rights to DirecTV. They had to have stipulations on the programming networks they had at that time.

It covers early radio, the formation of the Red and Blue Radio Networks, "The Chimes" (G-E-C), the World War II "Four Chime" sequence (G-E-C-G), experimental television, the start of the NBC TV network, the end of the NBC radio network, and the acquisition by GE.

It is good reading now that an era is passing. Also, take a trip down New York Memory Lane here: http://www.imonthe.net/66wnbc/ (the end of WNBC 660 AM).